Noah Goodbaum – Toronto, Canada

“…It was first discovered that I had bi-polar disorder and I was having delusions. I had delusions that there was a God and that He would counsel believers of every stripe as well as irreligious folk, to take counsel in and to read and to consider you know, sacred and authoritative the scriptures of all religions. Such that, you know, we were supposed to be reading the Tripiṭaka, we were supposed to be reading the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Talmud, etc. And I had always wondered about that because it was – I didn’t at the time consider it to have been a vision from God because it sounded too much like what I wanted. It sounded too much like something that I would like to have been true. And so I sort of assumed it couldn’t be. But here was Bahá’u’lláh proclaiming that essentially it was. And that Sam Cooke’s change, John Lennon’s change was at hand. That, you know, it was possible to reconcile the children of men and build heaven on earth, and being the universalist who believes forthrightly and devoutly in, you know, in the sacredness of human beings. And the capacity of every human being on the level of the soul to develop wonderful qualities and to be wonderful, to become wonderful, this sort of appealed to me. Because Bahá’u’lláh says, look it’s possible and we can win this. This benighted dunya, this fallen world, is not necessarily the world which will always be. We can build a society which universalizes an understanding of the Golden Rule and of universal brotherhood, love, compassion…”

Noah Goodbaum is one of the most remarkable human beings I have ever met….and I met him here, in my new home town of Toronto, Canada. Noah makes rap music under the name “THE MIGHTY RHINO” and he is a local celebrity and gifted writer of lyrics and creator of beats. Noah was born with cerebral palsy, has bi-polar disorder, and depending on who you ask– Aspergers, and OCD–“My little eccentricity collection” he says! But this doesn’t even tell half of the story. Noah was raised a Reconstructionist Jew but his soul came alive when he got exposed to the Baha’i faith. Today, Noah devotes his time to making his music and being the big hearted man he is. His first album was called “He whom the beats sets free is free indeed!” and his second album is about to be released. I was lucky to participate in his recording of a music video in Toronto’s Kensington Market where we marched down the street following Noah as he rapped “Everybody falls down sometimes, don’t you be afraid of the sunshine, yes you can and will get on your feet. STAY UP….” With Noah I have learned again that God is the sum total of our infinite capacity for loving ourselves and each other. I just love Noah Goodbaum, The Might Rhino, and everything he represents. Thank you Noah.